Syria ousts western diplomats

Assad regime declares 17 foreign diplomats unwelcome after co-ordinated expulsion of Syrian ambassadors by western states

Syria's decision to oust 17 western diplomats appears to reflect the regime's confidence that it can rely on the protection of Russia and China, led by presidents Vladimir Putin, left, and Hu Jintao. Photograph: Alexey Druzhinin/AFP/Getty

Syria has severed almost all its remaining diplomatic links with the west, declaring that envoys from the US and most of western Europe were no longer welcome in Damascus, in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of Syrian diplomats last week.

The Assad regime announced that 17 diplomats from the US, UK, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany and Canada were considered "personae non gratae" as well as the entire Turkish mission in Damascus.

Most of the diplomats listed had already been withdrawn for safety reasons, but the Syrian move was clearly intended as a signal of defiance of President Bashar al-Assad's foreign critics.

The foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, described it as a "reciprocal measure" over the co-ordinated expulsion of Syrian diplomats by several western states after the massacre of 108 civilians, including 49 children in the Houla region on 25 and 26 May.

The Syrian announcement on Tuesday also reflected confidence that the regime could rely on the continued protection of Russia and China from punitive UN sanctions or outside military intervention. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao restated their continuing support of a peace plan promoted by the UN special envoy, Kofi Annan, amid calls for tougher action in light of the mounting death toll.

Rebel groups have said they would no longer abide by the terms of the Annan plan because of Houla and other massacres carried out by government troops.

Fierce fighting was reported on Tuesday in the coastal province of Latakia where government forces used helicopter gunships against rebels in some of the heaviest clashes there since the revolt began. Activists also reported heavy shelling of the opposition stronghold of Homs.

UN investigators have said their evidence supported the claims of witnesses and defecting Syrian office that the Houla killings were carried out by a regime-controlled militia, the shabiha.

Assad denies his forces' involvement in the Houla killings, saying they were operating with "surgical" precision and declaring that "even monsters" could not have commited the murders, carried out at close quarters with guns and knives.

Western officials say the Assad regime has used the pretence of implementing the Annan peace plan as a ploy to buy time while attempting to crush the insurrection.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said the Gulf Arab states had also begun to faith in the plan, sponsored by the UN and the Arab League. "We have begun to lose hope in the possibility of reaching a solution ... within this framework," he told reporters in Jeddah after a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council.

However, Putin and Hu are resisting any review of the plan in the security council. After a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese state television reported: "On the Syrian issue, the two heads of state said the international community should continue to support the joint Arab League and UN special envoy Annan's mediation efforts and the UN monitoring mission, to promote a political solution to the problem in Syria."

The UN announced, meanwhile, it had won written agreement from Damascus to allow aid workers and supplies to enter the four most violent provinces: Daraa, Deir el-Zour, Homs and Idlib.

John Ging of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least a million Syrians are in urgent need of some form of humanitarian aid mostly as a result of the 15 months of mounting violence.

More than 2,300 Syrian refugees have arrived in Turkey over the past four days as the level of violence has peaked, increasing the number to nearly 27,000, according to Turkey's disaster and emergency management authority.

"Whether this is a breakthrough or not will be evident in the coming days and weeks and it will be measured not in rhetoric, not in agreements, but in action on the ground." Ging told reporters in Geneva. He said the regime had promised to issue visas to aid workers and remove other bureaucratic hurdles that have prevented the delivery of urgent assistance.